Electronic components generally have electrical terminals which join with mating terminals of associated components. Mating pairs of terminals may be of the type wherein one terminal is frictionally engaged in the other terminal. Each mating pair of frictionally engaging terminals exhibits a resistance to connection or disconnection, and a force must be applied to overcome the resistance. For electronic components having numerous terminals, the sum of the forces for all of the mating pairs may be quite large, thereby necessitating that a relatively large force be applied to connect or disconnect the components. In some cases it is quite difficult to apply such force due to the components being somewhat fragile and being packaged closely together, thereby making hand access difficult.
Various tools are known for separating electronic components which are in mating engagement. See, for example, U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,409,289 to Levin et al., 2,513,821 to Schneider, and 3,516,142 to DeRose et al. Each of these patents discloses a pulling tool comprising a pair of cooperating frame members one of which rests on a base or socket for an electronic component, and the other of which engages the electronic component to be removed therefrom. A camming member is operable to draw the one frame member toward the other, thereby disengaging the electronic component from its respective base or socket. However, none of these tools is operable to exert a force for reinserting the electronic component to its base or socket.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,059,206 to Williams discloses a tool which is specially adapted for connecting and disconnecting mating plug and receptacle connectors. The tool has a pivotable handle and cam arrangement connected to move a pair of clamp members relatively together or apart upon pivoting of the handle. Each clamp member is attached to a respective plug or receptacle on opposite sides of a connector junction. The plug and receptacle are connected by moving the clamp members relatively together, and are disconnected by moving the clamp members relatively apart. In this regard, the tool of Williams operates contrary to the other tools discussed above wherein the frames are moved relatively together to disconnect mating components. The tool of Williams spans a connector junction and is not operable from one side of a connector junction to both join and disjoin mating connectors, as is necessary to both remove and insert a backplane from outside of a card cage type enclosure, for example.
There is a need for a simple tool which enables both connection and disconnection of mating electrical components. There is also a need for a tool which is operable to both couple and decouple mating electrical components from one side of an electrical connector junction. Such a tool would be particularly useful for coupling and decoupling a backplane from multiple mating connectors in a card cage enclosure. In order to remove a backplane from a card cage heretofore, it has been necessary to electrically disable the entire system and remove from the card cage all daughter boards which were connected to the backplane. There is a need for a tool which enables removal of a backplane while associated daughter boards remain in the card cage. The present invention provides a tool having these and other advantages.